Everyday life, memories, happenings, friends, relatives, poetry, music, books. Just about everything. Einstein said, "The Whole of Science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

Inspiration.

I couldn’t help but wonder what inspiration is! What is the thought or idea that helps a musician to compose a symphony; motivates a painter to paint a masterpiece or encourages a writer to write?

I asked a writer what stir her to write, she said things from a tulip to forces from higher above. I asked a painter what inspires him to paint; he said the encouragement comes from the first ray of the sun to maestros like Da Vinci. Just like human intellect, inspiration has no bounds, he said.

I am forced to think if these ideas we call inspiration are mere intimate state of our own minds. It is not the surroundings around us that enthuse us rather the clarity or delusion of our own mind. The profoundest of this inspiration depends upon the severity of our circumstances.

History has a number of poets, writers, scholars and painters who went through a great deal of hardships in their lives, yet more lucid and immerse their art form became.

I want to know what is inspiration for you. What inspires you and how you respond to it?